Hydraulics is full of parts that are hard to name. A customer has a gear pump off a machine built thirty years ago, a cartridge valve with a worn tag, or a fitting with a thread nobody at the plant can identify. They do not know what to search for, so they call. Your inside sales person spends twenty minutes working out what it is, and a day chasing a price.
The app gives customers and your team faster ways through that.
AI Quick Quote: describe it, get a price
With AI Quick Quote, a customer says or types what they need in plain words, like "two 1/2 inch hose assemblies, 36 inches, female JIC swivel both ends," and gets a priced quote back. A planner can paste a list of items in their own words. Lines that need checking are checked again against the full description and update on screen.
That handles a lot of everyday quoting without anyone at your counter touching it.
Get this for me: when it is not in the catalog
For parts that are not in the catalog, Get this for me lets a customer ask for anything they do not see. They can take a photo of the part, ideally with the manufacturer's tag, box or part number, and send it in. It goes to your purchasing team and comes back as a quote. You, the rep and the customer all get a copy.
Photos help a great deal in hydraulics. A picture of a pump nameplate or a valve body tells your purchasing team more than a description over the phone. Reps can do the same in the field: a rep can buy what a customer asks for, or send it to purchasing.
The email quote desk
Many quote requests still arrive by email: a list from an engineer, a request from a contractor's office. The email quote desk prices quotes requested by email and answers them. AI decisions keeps a record of what the agents did, so your team can check them.
Here is how the quote tools split up:
- AI Quick Quote for items you carry, described in plain words.
- Get this for me for anything outside the catalog, with a photo.
- Email quote desk for requests that arrive in the inbox.
- Quotes in the app, where the customer accepts a price when ready.
Why hard-to-find parts are good business
The odd pump and the obsolete valve are where hydraulic distributors earn their reputation. A customer who finds that you can identify and source the part nobody else could will call you first next time, for everything. Quoting is also where margin lives: hard-to-find parts are rarely shopped on price.
One habit helps a lot: when a hard-to-find part is finally identified, add it to the customer's part numbers or My Catalog so the next order is easy. Old equipment tends to fail the same way twice. The second time the customer needs that obsolete seal kit or pump, it should take one tap, not another day of detective work.
The quoting tools do not replace your experts. They take the easy quotes off their desks and organize the hard ones, so your best people spend their time on the cross to a discontinued pump, not on typing up a price for standard hose ends.
Want to see it with your own hose, fittings and customers? See how it works.